Emergency response data transmission system

ABSTRACT

A system and method using low-bandwidth to deliver key data from preexisting emergency response data programs to remote computer facilities using a variety of communications capabilities is provided. Key displays are re-created with enhanced information content and for distribution to a broad user audience via the Internet. Displays are updated every few seconds to remain synchronized with the on-site emergency response data program computer&#39;s current status.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority of U.S. provisional application Ser.No. 60/461,684 filed on Apr. 9, 2003 having the same title as thepresent application.

REFERENCE TO COMPUTER PROGRAM CD

This application includes as an appendix a CD providing a source codeand installation package for a computer program incorporating anexemplary embodiment of the present invention as disclosed herein. Thematerials contained on the CD are incorporated by reference as thoughfully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to the field of emergency datamanagement systems and, more particularly, to a web enabledcomprehensive data management agent for distribution of preexisting orevolving hazardous chemicals location, chemical data and respondingunits information.

2. Description of the Related Art

Use of computer databases for emergency response systems has expanded toinclude highly sophisticated and capable systems. One exemplary system,CAMEO® Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations, is a set ofcomputer programs developed by the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration and the US Environmental Protection Agency to assistemergency planners and responders in dealing with incidents involvinghazardous chemicals. CAMEO® is a registered trademark of the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As defined by the EPA on the CAMEO® website “CAMEO® is a system ofsoftware applications used widely to plan for and respond to chemicalemergencies. It is one of the tools developed by EPA's ChemicalEmergency Preparedness and Prevention Office (CEPPO) and the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Response andRestoration (NOAA), to assist front-line chemical emergency planners andresponders. They can use CAMEO® to access, store, and evaluateinformation critical for developing emergency plans. In addition, CAMEO®supports regulatory compliance by helping users meet the chemicalinventory reporting requirements of the Emergency Planning and CommunityRight-to-Know Act (EPCRA, also known as SARA Title III). The CAMEO®system integrates a chemical database and a method to manage the data,an air dispersion model, and a mapping capability. All modules workinteractively to share and display critical information in a timelyfashion. The CAMEO® system is available in Macintosh and Windowsformats.”

As mentioned above, the CAMEO® system contains three modules that arefurther defined in FIG. 1 of the drawings. The CAMEO® Databases module10 provides the stored information and properties for Chemical FacilityDatabase; Local Chemical Inventories; Emergency Planning Data; Contacts;Past Incidents Database and Special Locations Database. The ALOHA®(Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) module 12 provides basicatmospheric dispersion modeling for a number of volatile substances inthe chemical database. The MARPLOT® (Mapping Application for ResponsePlanning and Local Operational Tasks) module 14 provides a mappingfacility based on Census Bureau street maps. ALOHA® and MARPLOT® areregistered trademarks of the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration.

Approximately 40,000 copies of the CAMEO® system have been downloadedfrom EPA since May, 2002. The programs are available at no cost to theuser. A significant number of these systems are used by the nation'sfirefighters in responding to chemical accidents. According to NOAA, theALOHA® dispersion model is the “most commonly used [atmosphericdispersion] model for first responders.”

Typically, the CAMEO® system is contained in a portable computer anddeployed to the scene of a chemical accident aboard a fire truck orother emergency response vehicle. Once the chemical agent has beenidentified, CAMEO® provides a vast amount of information on the natureof the threat as well as possible countermeasures. FIG. 2 provides anexample of some of the information available to the firefighter.

Once the substance involved in the incident is identified, the ALOHA®air dispersion model can be used to calculate the downwind dispersionunder meteorological conditions 1) specified by the firefighter or 2)provided by a portable meteorological station attached to the CAMEO®computer. An example of the output of the air dispersion calculation isshown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 shows the plume that would result from the release of 50 poundsper minute of phosphine given a sunny day, with no inversion layer andwinds of 10 miles per hour. If a meteorological station is attached tothe CAMEO® computer, the plume will be recalculated every 30 seconds toreflect changing atmospheric conditions. The area 16 in the center ofthe plume represents the concentration determined to “ImmediatelyDangerous to Life and Health”, a concentration (for phosphine) of 50parts per million. The user has the option of using other health-relatedthreshold concentrations as the basis of the plume calculation. Theouter area of the plume 18 (outside the cross-hatched segment)represents a 3-sigma confidence limit on the calculation.

CAMEO®'s mapping module, MARPLOT®, allows the plume diagram to beplotted on a street map and oriented in the downwind direction. Thefirefighter specifies the origin of the plume by “pointing and clicking”at the appropriate position on the screen. FIG. 4 provides an example ofsuch a plot where the plume as described with respect to FIG. 3 isoverlayed on a census map 20.

The three modules, CAMEO®, ALOHA® and MARPLOT®, communicate amongthemselves as the user moves through the analytical process. That is tosay that inputs provided by the user and the results of calculationsprovided by the program are “remembered” as the user moves among thevarious modules. This memory can be tapped by queries to the CAMEO®programs or by examining the content of various files temporarily storedon the users hard disk.

Normally, the CAMEO® operator (who must be highly-trained in the properapplication and use of the program) will provide verbal summaries viaradio of key information gained through use of the program. No means areprovided for real-time external access to CAMEOS data. Direct screentransfers are generally problematic due to wireless bandwidthlimitations at many remote locations.

It is therefore desirable to have a data transfer agent and system whichmakes the real-time data from an emergency response database programsuch as CAMEO®, while in use at an incident, available to otherresponders and monitoring personnel in a web based environment with lowbandwidth transmission requirements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Emergency response data coordination and communication is provided byinstalling a software agent and a wireless communications device on anemergency responder computer terminal having an emergency response dataprogram. The emergency response data program is queried upon activationby an emergency responder using the software agent to determine thestate of predefined data elements generated and stored by the emergencyresponse data program. A transmission file of the data elements obtainedin the query is created and the transmission file forwarded to awireless gateway. A centralized computer system connected to thewireless gateway then extracts the data elements and converts geographicdata to Geographic Information System formats, converts text informationto be displayed directly on screen to HTML format and inserts other textinformation into database systems to retrieve associated data to bedisplayed on screen. The resulting display is then forwarded to anInternet-based Geographic Information System, recreating the keyelements of the emergency response data program display usingpredetermined supplemental map data, and the display is posted for webaccess by permitted users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will bebetter understood by reference to the following detailed descriptionwhen considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the prior art elements of the CAMEO®system;

FIG. 2 is a screen shot of a data element display from the CAMEO®database;

FIG. 3 is a screen shot of a plume calculation by the ALOHA® module ofCAMEO®;

FIG. 4 is a screen shot of the plume calculation of FIG. 3 as output bythe MARPLOT® module of CAMEO®;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the system elementsaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a screen shot of an exemplary output from the system; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram flowchart of the operations of the softwareelements of the system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Using CAMEO® as an exemplary emergency response database, a systemaccording to the present invention employs an “agent” placed in theCAMEO® computer carried by the emergency responder that queries thevarious CAMEOS modules on their status (or reads various status filescreated by the program), a transmitter to transmit the files created bythe agent to a remote computer complex, a web distribution node forre-construction of the key displays and distribution via the Internet.Defined in terms of a method, the present invention incorporates thefollowing steps:

1. The “agent”, a computer program placed in the emergency responder'scomputer, interrogates the CAMEOS modules as to current state ofknowledge:

-   -   a) What is the date and time of day;    -   b) What chemical has the user identified as being involved in        the incident;    -   c) Is the remote weather station operating and providing data;    -   d) What is the wind speed and direction at 3 meters above the        surface;    -   e) What is the geometry of the projected atmospheric dispersion        plume;    -   f) What is the “level of concern” identified by the user;    -   g) Where has the user placed the origin of the plume.

Although there are a number of ways to elicit this information fromCAMEO®, the method of an exemplary embodiment disclosed herein is toextract two small text files created by CAMEO® as it works through itsanalytical process—“ALO_ftp.pas” (created by ALOHA® each time the plumedispersion model has been run) and “ALOHA.obj” (created by MARPLOT® eachtime the plume is plotted on a MARPLOT® map). ALO_ftp.pas contain itemsa.) through f.) above and ALOGA.obj contains item g.) above.

2. Transmit the data identified in step 1 to a predetermined Internetnode at a computer processing facility. This transmission uses invarious embodiments a variety of cellular, radio frequency, or satellitetransmission methods.

3. When the files are received at the computer facility, they areprocessed by a computer algorithm that extracts the information requiredto construct the display:

-   -   a) The geographic description of the plume is converted to one        of several Geographic Information System formats, e.g., ESRI        shapefile.    -   b) Text information to be displayed directly on the final screen        is converted to HTML format.    -   c) Other text information (e.g. chemical name) is inserted into        database systems to retrieve associated data to be displayed on        the screen (e.g. response data), if required.

4. The resulting display is then forwarded to an Internet-basedGeographic Information System that will recreate the key elements of theCAMEOS system being viewed on the firefighter's computer (FIG. 6). Thebase maps used in this process may differ significantly in content fromthose available in MARPLOT® and provide greater fidelity for use byon-site and monitoring personnel.

It is important to note that although the key data elements remain thesame as viewed by the firefighter on the original emergency responseprogram, they are augmented and reorganized in several ways, forexample:

-   -   a. The base map is no longer restricted to the Census Bureau        maps required by MARPLOT® or whatever the mapping program may be        for the emergency response system. Any map base may be used,        including aerial photographs such as shown provided on the        remote terminal display in FIG. 6.    -   b. Other parameters of interest to the responding community are        selectively overlaid on the map display. This capability greatly        increases the usefulness of the Internet display of data from an        emergency response system such as CAMEO.

5. The Internet display is available to the intended audience via asecure server. As indicated earlier, the user community will includefederal, state and local responders involved in the incident, newsmedia, hospitals, command posts, etc. The display also forms the basisfor automated telephone information system delivery of information forpublic awareness.

6. A data cataloging program monitors all incidents hosted through thecentralized server to create common incident information for similarchemicals or response scenarios. Multiple incidents occurringsubstantially simultaneously are cross linked to allow communicationregarding potentially interrelated incidents.

The system incorporating the invention described in the method aboveprovides, as shown in FIG. 5, a wireless communications module 22 andsoftware package 24 for integration in a CAMEO® equipped computer 26. Asshown in FIG. 7, the software package monitors CAMEO®, block 50, ondetection of any changes in the either ALO_ftp.pas or ALOHA.obj(indicating a new plume model has originated), block 52, the softwareelement of the agent queries the CAMEO® modules and provides to thecommunications module a small coded file (consisting of the chemicalname, date and time of day, origin of the incident, geometry of theplume, wind speed and direction from the on-scene CAMEOS computer, block54. The communications module transmits the file through a wirelessgateway 28, in FIG. 5, to a GIS applications server 30 located in acentralized processing center.

A control software set 32 in the GIS applications server receives thefiles and prepares for further processing, block 56 of FIG. 7, createsreal-time, synchronized displays of CAMEOS data by extracting text datafor database lookup and conversion to HTML text display, block 58, andmaps are recreated by extracting and converting the plume geometry withadded information from received GPS data, block 60, into GIS compatibleshapefiles, block 62. A GIS display is then prepared, block 64.Additional text data for direct HTML text display is extracted, block66. The control software posts the data and maps, block 68, to a webserver 34 shown in FIG. 5 to make the data and maps available viastandard Internet browser technology to remote terminals 36 monitored byemergency operations center personnel, police and health authorities andother authorized users who are remote from the incident. Small, handheld devices 38 provide key data and maps for responders in theimmediate vicinity of the incident, but without direct access to theCAMEO® computer. Displays on the remote terminals and hand held devicesare shown in exemplary form in FIG. 6. The CAMEOS information andsupplemental information provided to the web site by the GISapplications server is integrated in a single display. The plumeinformation 70 is overlayed on a map 66 selected by the user and notlimited to the CAMEOS system's capability. In the embodiment shown, anaerial photograph is employed. CAMEO® data 72 recreated at the centralserver is displayed as well as supplemental HTML text information 74such as responder identification. In FIG. 6, GPS locations of respondingvehicles 76 and individuals 78 are included.

The system provides the infrastructure upon which other key operationalparameters not currently part of the CAMEO® system are overlaid togreatly increase their overall information value. These include GPScoordinates of responding vehicles and personnel provided by a GPSreceiver 40 as shown in FIG. 5, on-scene video from deployed camera(s)42 and output from various chemical sensors 44 deployed during theincident. Individual responders carrying GPS locating systems 46integral with their remote handhelds or associated with other equipmentare also monitored by the system to add location information on thesereponders to the presentation.

Since CAMEO® is broadly distributed in the United States, the systemprovides a nucleus for real-time monitoring of many simultaneousresponses broadly distributed throughout the country and, as such, mayform the basis for a national monitoring system for hazardous chemicalresponses. Further, the centralized server provides a basis formonitoring all emergency response occurrences for cataloging purposesand for monitoring commonality of emergencies under response. Thisability allows use of the system in a terrorist response scenario wheremultiple occurrences of chemical or biological attack may be occurringsubstantially simultaneously.

Having now described the invention in detail as required by the patentstatutes, those skilled in the art will recognize modifications andsubstitutions to the specific embodiments disclosed herein. Suchmodifications are within the scope and intent of the present inventionas defined in the following claims.

1. A method for emergency response data coordination and communicationcomprising the steps of: installing a software agent and a wirelesscommunications device on an emergency responder computer terminal havingan emergency response data program; querying the emergency response dataprogram upon activation by an emergency responder using the softwareagent to determine the state of predefined data elements generated andstored by the emergency response data program; creating a transmissionfile of the data elements obtained in the query; transmitting thetransmission file to a wireless gateway; extracting the data elements ona centralized computer system connected to the wireless gateway;converting geographic data to a Geographic Information System formats;converting text information to be displayed directly on screen to HTMLformat; inserting other text information into database systems toretrieve associated data to be displayed on screen; forwarding theresulting display to an Internet-based Geographic Information System andrecreating the key elements of the emergency response data programdisplay using predetermined supplemental map data; and posting thedisplay for web access by permitted users.
 2. A method for emergencyresponse data coordination and communication as defined in claim 1wherein the step of querying includes: determining date and time of day;determining what chemical the emergency responder has identified;determining a geometry of the dispersion plume; determining the level ofconcern identified by the emergency responder; and, determining theorigin of the plume defined by the emergency responder.
 3. A method foremergency response data coordination and communication as defined inclaim 2 wherein a remote weather station is connected to the emergencyresponder computer terminal and wherein the step of determining ageometry includes the step of determining the wind speed and direction.4. A method for emergency response data coordination and communicationas defined in claim 2 wherein the step of converting geographic dataincludes converting the geometry of the plume to a GeographicInformation System format.
 5. A method for emergency response datacoordination and communication as defined in claim 4 wherein thegeometry of the plume is converted to an ESRI shapefile.
 6. A method foremergency response data coordination and communication as defined inclaim 1 wherein the predetermined supplemental map data includes aerialphotographs.
 7. A method for emergency response data coordination andcommunication as defined in claim 1 wherein the predetermined map dataincludes parameters of interest to a responding community.
 8. A methodfor emergency response data coordination and communication as defined inclaim 1 wherein the step of posting is accomplished using a secureserver.
 9. A method for emergency response data coordination andcommunication as defined in claim 2 further comprising the steps of:monitoring all incidents hosted through the centralized computer system;creating common incident information for chemicals identified by theemergency responder.
 10. A method for emergency response datacoordination and communication as defined in claim 9 further comprisingthe step of cross linking incidents occurring substantiallysimultaneously.
 11. An emergency response data coordination andcommunication system comprising: a software agent inserted in anemergency responder computer terminal having an emergency response dataprogram, the software agent having means to query the emergency responsedata program to determine the state of predefined data elementsgenerated and stored by the emergency response data program and meansfor creating a transmission file of the data elements; a wirelesstransmitter inserted in the computer terminal adapted to receive andtransmit the transmission file; a wireless gateway receiving thetransmitted file; a GIS application server operably connected to thewireless gateway and having means to extract the data elements, means toconvert geographic data to a Geographic Information System format, meansto convert a first set of text information to be displayed directly onthe final screen to HTML format, means for inserting a second set oftext information into database systems to retrieve associated data to bedisplayed on the screen and means for creating the resulting display;and a web portal connected to the GIS application server for posting ofthe display for access by authorized users.
 12. An emergency responsedata coordination and communication system as defined in claim 11further comprising: a GPS receiver attached to the computer terminal,said transmitter also transmitting position information from the GPSreceiver.
 13. An emergency response data coordination and communicationsystem as defined in claim 11 further comprising: a an automated weatherstation having means for wind speed and direction sensing connected tothe computer terminal, said transmitter also transmitting wind speed anddirection.
 14. An emergency response data coordination and communicationsystem as defined in claim 12 wherein the geographic data includes datafrom the GPS receiver.
 15. An emergency response data coordination andcommunication system as defined in claim 13 wherein the geographic dataincludes plume geometry and said GIS application server includes meansfor adjusting plume geometry dependent on said wind speed and direction.